Speeding up an old XP computer!

Laz123

Just my penny's worth:

Auslogics do a defrag program and it has a facility to 'optimise' which may speed things up. Doubling your ram would too. When I had an xp machine I'd reinstall the xp once a year (which loses data) which formats and installs it. It's always worth having an external hd to back up data.

hans_2

DEBTMONKEY1A wrote: »

Someone a few years ago posted a definative guide to speed up XP. Can't find it anywhere!

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Last page post 305 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

DEBTMONKEY1A

Thanks all! The other PC I have downstairs is Windows 7, 160gb, 4gb RAM & dual core-£26 from Ebay with a guarantee (6 months I think?!). Will probably buy another of these (money is urder tight as hours cut) & copy/paste folders to USB & load on that. In the mean time/short term will soldier on with this old thing....bit of sentimental value as 1st PC I had when I started working from home ages ago ...sniff (!).

One last question-I LOVE the format & ease of use of outlook express-is there anywhere I can download this or similar to PC downstairs & potential new PC?

AndyPix

Laz123 wrote: »

Auslogics do a defrag program and it has a facility to 'optimise' which may speed things up..

Rule of thumb : Installing stuff slows down your computer. Uninstalling stuff speeds it up

Fightsback

DEBTMONKEY1A wrote: »

One last question-I LOVE the format & ease of use of outlook express-is there anywhere I can download this or similar to PC downstairs & potential new PC?

Use thunderbird:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/

DEBTMONKEY1A

Well followed the tutorial kindly posted by a fellow MSER'R & computer MUCH quicker! Strangely windows firewall I colud not get to work after disabling all services.msc.....and also avast would not open!

Downloaded Zero Alarm free firewall & 360 virus (all that's running) & all is good.

Thunderbird.....simply would not take correct e-mail & password for yahoo mail? Confused.com! Be about tomorrow if anyone has any ideas. Night night!

Mr.Generous

just out of interest in the 'run' box type "msconfig" and see exactly what is running from startup.

DEBTMONKEY1A

e_fatiace-command is windows system, QHsafetray, command is programme files (360 antivirus I think), zatray (firewall I think), command is programme files, fireefox, command is programme file. So only 4 running at start up. CPU use is zero or very very low & commit charge is 1002m/3668m with 2 windows + outlook express open. It's never been so quick! Freed up 3gb on hard drive so 9 left out of 38gb. If It keeps going like this its ideal as no gaming/watching tv on it etc. PC downstairs has 4gb ram (this has 1.49gb) & 160 gb hard drive. Am also running as advised by the turorial cleanmem mini monitor as well.

Anyone any idea how to make it auto run at start up? I have to manually click on it to start it. I click on the main cleanmem icon to open but it won't? The mini monitor & settings however are functioning fine & are in the start menu short cuts.

EDIT EDIT-Sussed how to set for start up now....not enough coffee yet lol!

Jivesinger

Laz123 wrote: »

Just my penny's worth:

Auslogics do a defrag program and it has a facility to 'optimise' which may speed things up.

Modern versions of Windows (eg. Windows 7 or later) don't need users to think about defrag as they manage it themselves pretty well.

But... I seem to remember that although Windows XP has a defrag feature built-in, it doesn't run it automatically. So just running the built-in defrag every so often could help, especially if the disk is quite full.

esuhl

If you ever want to do a clean installation, have a look at nLite. You can disable or remove many unnecessary Windows components, as well as slipstream downloaded updates (to save you having to use Windows Update), which might be useful if Microsoft stop providing XP updates.

Just for the tweaking options alone, it's pretty good -- it really improves a standard XP installation.

http://www.nliteos.com/